Textpattern CMS support forum
You are not logged in. Register | Login | Help
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Re: Txp Admin
Ah looks like deviantart was down when I checked (gateway timeouts).
- I like how you’ve moved the login/logout up top.
- The drop-down is nice – it eliminates the need for duplicate menus (table + select in current admin).
- The active-tab needs more contrast.
- “Add-Ons” should be “Extensions.” (This hain’t no Firefox!)
- Too much vertical padding in each of the right-column fieldsets.
- Too much horizontal padding on the submenu.
- Curved-menu and drop shadows should go.
- Right-column legends should be left-aligned.
- The background-gray is too dark – why not use the lighter gray of the content area or use white?
Offline
Re: Txp Admin
I don’t like the idea of having three columns, i think it becomes too cramped, and much prefer having just the two, but because of the amount of functions, I was thinking of making the sidebar an accordian? x
~ Cameron
Offline
Re: Txp Admin
jm wrote:
* Curved-menu and drop shadows should go.
Personally I thought the current iteration was an improvement over the original drop down. Curve aside, w/ the drop shadow – some sort of demarcation is useful for the eye and brain to organize and process quickly (my opinion).
- The background-gray is too dark – why not use the lighter gray of the content area or use white?
As I mentioned in response to Mary’s comment in the other thread driz started on this: I like that focal quality the contrast brings; but agreed – the gray is not pleasant.
driz wrote:
don’t like the idea of having three columns, …. too cramped …. prefer …. two …. because of the amount of functions ….. making the sidebar an accordian?
Perhaps a two column layout, where one column has a third level of tabs for the various settings, custom fields, etc. – similar to EE’s js approach on it’s write tab (but improved over it)?
Last edited by maverick (2008-07-05 14:49:06)
Offline
Re: Txp Admin
Always interesting to see new takes. Again, like masa mentioned in the other thread, I can’t help thinking that there’s still too much concentration on eye-candy, UI, technologies and too little thought on how it is actually used and by whom. In my view that’s the wrong motivation for a redesign.
Two examples:
- The drop-down menus look tidier but they also elevate the “areas” at the expense of the “actions”. In my view it should be other way around. When you set up a login for a normal author (i.e. not an admin), all they will see is content and admin. Admin they only need once in a blue moon should their e-mail change or they want a new password. What they really want to do is “write an article”, “change an article”, “add a picture”, “add a link”… but none of these options are to be seen on-screen. And if that author is not too tech-savvy, they are already lost because the word content doesn’t give any visual cue as to what it is. A further side-effect of not having the actions bar is that one needs an extra location breadcrumb. What you’ve taken away, you’ve added elsewhere.
- Similarly, accordians reduces clutter but it also hides what might be relevant or even important information that needs entering. Normal users or users who update only occasionally won’t know what’s behind which accordian and have to look through them all. In the end, they omit important information, e.g. an event gets added without the date or the users forgets to assign it to the correct section resulting in the post appearing in the wrong place, possibly breaking the front-end layout… and so on and so forth…
In short:
- a redesign should make it easier and better to use, not just make things look neat or nice (which is subjective anyway).
- Moreover, any redesign will need to bridge between (or be adaptable to) the needs of a normal non-expert user on the one hand and the site designer/admin on the other.
- Finally, I would want to be able to ‘personalise’ the back-end to a degree, e.g. so that the author thinks of it as “theirs”. That adds a branding dilemma to the equation.
Where I agree with you is with two columns, though not so much because of things being cramped – if you just want to de-cramp things you could use the whole width of the window (which you could do anyway). Two columns work well in my view because most people (in the western world) begin at the top left and work down, then move over to the top-right and work their way down again. For a large proportion of users it’s quite natural. In my view, the second column should show relevant information that needs filling out for the article to be complete. The option to save should be after that. Non-essential fields can be tidied away behind hidden panes (similar technology to an accordian, but different principle).
Some more pointers: guiguibonbon/guillaume already pursued some ideas along those lines here taking the choice of section/category as his starting point. iblastoff/steve compiled lots of previous attempts here. Personally, I found this mock-up most promising and have pursued it further for my own implementation.
TXP Builders – finely-crafted code, design and txp
Offline
Re: Txp Admin
My 2p. I can’t really see any significant improvement with this design (or for that matter any designs I’ve seen so far) over the original. FWIW, if there were 3 rows at the top – Content and its tabs, Presentation and its tabs and Admin and its tabs – all on view it would save clicking and clearly show what relates to what. The dropdown could then be dispensed with. Also if the Advanced Options on the left were always open, that would be great.
Offline
Re: Txp Admin
Jacob,
Very well said. I hadn’t thought about this from the perspective on any other user level except “publisher/admin”.
You make a great point about the drop downs hiding everything useful except “content” for lower level users.
Driz,
Chin up ‘ole chap…this is a tough crowd.
Your suggestions/perspective are much appreciated, and producing some interesting conversation.
:)
Last edited by renobird (2008-07-05 16:30:45)
Offline
Re: Txp Admin
cool cool :)
how does one go about getting this worked into the next version of Txp? like say v5.0
x
~ Cameron
Offline
#20 2008-07-05 20:34:03
- els
- Moderator
- From: The Netherlands
- Registered: 2004-06-06
- Posts: 7,458
Re: Txp Admin
driz wrote:
how does one go about getting this worked into the next version of Txp?
Excuse me? Do you know how many there already are? (example, example, example, example, example, and so on…)
Let me repeat myself once more ;)
Offline
Re: Txp Admin
Els wrote:
driz wrote:
how does one go about getting this worked into the next version of Txp?
Excuse me? Do you know how many there already are? (example, example, example, example, example, and so on…)
Let me repeat myself once more ;)
Those are all mods, I’m talking about an actual redesign of the structure. Not just the styling. x
Last edited by driz (2008-07-05 23:16:59)
~ Cameron
Offline
#22 2008-07-05 23:20:02
- masa
- Member
- From: Asturias, Spain
- Registered: 2005-11-25
- Posts: 1,091
Re: Txp Admin
driz wrote:
Those are all mods, I’m talking about an actual redesign of the structure. Not just the styling.
Through recent years there have been many attempts to redesign the interface, but they’ve all fallen short to provide a convincingly better alternative to what we have currently.
If you can come up with such a solution in a way that won’t disrupt things, I’m sure your input will be much appreciated.
Offline
Re: Txp Admin
masa wrote:
Through recent years there have been many attempts to redesign the interface, but they’ve all fallen short to provide a convincingly better alternative to what we have currently.
If you can come up with such a solution in a way that won’t disrupt things, I’m sure your input will be much appreciated.
Hmm well I think my approach keeps it similar to what we have now, and keeps the branding inline, all the other ones just feel like mods, rather than a fresh look. x
~ Cameron
Offline
Re: Txp Admin
re: admin makeovers/skins/mods – whatever you want to call them. Some of them deal with structure also.
re: skinning and branding – Crockery (the next major rewrite) has already introduced the beginnings of admin theme support.
Offline